The present invention relates to data communication techniques and integrated circuit (IC) devices.
Over the last few decades, the use of communication networks has exploded. In the early days of the Internet, popular applications were limited to emails, bulletin board, and mostly informational and text-based web page surfing, and the amount of data transferred was relatively small. Today, the Internet and mobile applications demand a huge amount of bandwidth for transferring photo, video, music, and other multimedia files. For example, a social network like Facebook processes on the order of petabytes of data daily. With such high demands on data storage and data transfer, existing data communication systems need to be improved to address these needs.
In high speed data communication, input buffers are often implemented in conjunction with data transmitters and digital-to-analog converters (DACs). For example, an input buffer may include an array of inverters to reduce power dissipation and improve system performance. Over the past, there have been various techniques to implement input buffer modules. Unfortunately, they have been inadequate. Therefore, improved communication systems and methods are desired.